Features - Benton BX-1 5 step Battery Charger

The Benton BX-1 switch mode battery charger truly is a unique
battery charger. What sets this charger miles apart from its competitors
is its ability to automatically diagnose, recover, charge and maintain
your battery for months on end even when you do not use it.

Fully automatic and interactive from charge to maintenance, MCU
controlled and completely electronically safe against any user errors
what more could you ask for in a battery charger!

A full product feature overview of the Benton BX-1 battery charger
is available on this page:

The auto function makes sure that in the event of a power failure or load shedding, once the power comes back on the battery charger automatically restarts itself and continues charging in the same mode. You can leave the Benton attached to a battery without worrying about restarting it after a power failure, it carries on charging in the correct mode.

The Benton BX-1 truly is a unique switch mode battery charger
and maintainer for lead-acid batteries which through its 5 step
process automatically diagnoses, recovers and charges car, bike,
quadbike and even boat batteries for months on end at near 100%
of original capacity.

The battery charger is fully interactive and will adjust itself
too the changing current and voltage requirement to charge and maintain
the battery.

Each of the steps in the 5-step process is outlined in more detail
below:

1. Diagnosis & Recovery

As soon as charging instructions are given to the charger, the
Benton BX-1’s unique diagnostic function automatically checks
the status and detects the voltage of the battery. If the battery
is deeply discharged and the voltage is over 7.5V+/-0.5V, the charger
will begin pulse charging with small current to recover it, which
will terminate when the voltage reaches to 10.5V+/-0.5V. On the
other hand of the battery voltage is over 10.5V+/-0.5V, the charger
will skip pulse charging and switch over to the pre-selected charging
mode.

2. Bulk

During the Bulk charging phase up to 80% of the battery’s
lost energy is returned to it. In this phase the charger performs
its function in 2 stages:

a. High rate charging: charger delivers constant current of 3.8A
until the voltage reaches 12.8V
b. Medium rate charging: charger delivers constant current of 3.0A
until the voltage reaches 14.1V at which point the charger switches
to absorption phase. Since the current is not being delivered at
the highest constant level, the Benton BX-1 charger will automatically
minimize the heating of the battery thereby eliminating the build
up of gases. This ensures more efficient and safer performance.

3. Absorption

The use of a constant current of 3.8A for extended periods of
time risks gassing the battery. To counteract this effect a constant
low charging current of 0.8A is given to raise the battery’s
voltage from 14.1V to 14.4V. In this phase complete charging of
almost 100% of battery power is achieved. Once this has been accomplished,
and the Benton charger senses the battery is truly fully charged
it will switch to the float charge phase.

4. Float charge

When the Float charge phase is reached it effectively means your
battery is fully charged and ready for use. During the float charge
phase the battery will signal the charger when it is not at 100%
capacity and will only take enough current to sustain small loads
such as alarms or current leaks in the vehicle wiring circuit. A
very low current of 100mA is given to the battery to accomplish
this. When voltage however drops below 12.8V, the Benton ’s
monitoring circuits will sense that battery needs more current to
maintain its charge than is available in the float charge phase.
The charger will then switch to the maintenance charger phase.

5. Maintenance Charge

In this phase of charging the charger continually monitors the
terminal voltage in order to determine if maintenance charging should
be initiated. If the battery is loaded and/or the voltage falls
below 12.8V, the charger starts a maintenance charging pulse at
constant 0.8A until the battery’s voltage reaches 14.4V. Maintenance
charging will then discontinued. Cycles of float and maintenance
charging will be repeated indefinitely to keep the battery in good
condition when it is not in use, and enables the charger to be connected
indefinitely.

The Benton is effective and suitable for charging a wide variety
of Lead Sealed Acid (SLA) batteries. The batteries may consist of
various types such as WET/Flooded (Liquid Electrolyte), GEL (Gelatin
type Electrolyte, absorbed into the plates) or AGM (Absorbed Glass
Mat).
The following recommendations should only be referred to as guidelines.
For precise details you must refer to battery manufacturer for instructions.

Battery safety features should be one of your top considerations
when purchasing a battery charger. The Benton is not only a superb
and outstanding charger but comes with these safety features as
standard:

Created and designed to be electronically safe against user
errors, the charger will in addition not damage your vehicle electronics.
It is totally safe for months-long connections and maintenance
of irregular or seasonally used batteries even while the charger
is still connected to the vehicle. It provides optimal charging
conditions without damage to the battery or the vehicles electronic
system and you will never suffer the RISK OF OVER-CHARGING!

The charger provides full protection against possible wrong
terminal connection and against short circuits thereby ensuring
the safest possible charge operation imaginable.

Fully controlled by an internal MCU (micro processor unit)
makes it faster, more powerful, reliable and smarter than any
other existing battery charger. It will even detect the state
of the charge of the battery plugged into it and initiates charging.

When you connect the Benton BX-1 charger to the battery, the charger will automatically detect the voltage of the battery before starting the charging process. If the voltage is below 7.5V the Benton BX-1 charger will not start due to its internal safety circuit. Instead it will initiate pulse charging mode if the voltage of the battery is in the range of 7.5V+/- 0.5 to 10.5V+/-0.5V. Once the voltage of the battery rises to 10.5V+/-0.5V, the charger will change over to your previously selected normal charging mode, thereby ensuring your battery can be charged faster and safer. With the Benton BX-1 battery charger most drained batteries can be charged and used again using this procedure.

To ensure overheating protection, the Benton charger is protected by NTC control. During the charging process, if the charger becomes too hot, the power unit is automatically reduced to protect itself from damage. The charger continues to perform its function but will do so at a trickle charge. The charger will increase power automatically when the ambient temperature drops.
In addition every Benton is provided with a Spark protection mechanism. This means the charger will not begin operation upon connection to the battery, until the charge mode has been selected. This embedded feature eliminates the possibility of a spark that often appears during connections.

Abnormality Protection from the Benton will in the case of short-circuit, open-circuit, reverse polarity connection or battery voltage below 7.5V+/-0.5V, the charger will turn off the electronic system and will immediately rest the system back to basic position to avoid damage to the battery and charger.